Diversity issues in contemporary organizations

Diversification

There are several different types of diversity that I have observed in my organization. They relate to primarily to that which is both inherent and acquired. Of the former, there is a slight amount of diversity in age. Most of the people in the organization are born from the early 1960's to the late 1970's -- there are only a few people that are born in the 80's and none from the 1990's or later. In terms of race and ethnicity, there is not enough diversity. The vast majority of the employees and upper level management are Caucasian. However, there is a paltry amount of Pacific Islanders and a single African-American. There is not so much diversity in the education of most of the employees. The vast majority of them appear to have basic bachelor's degrees with very few (possibly just one person, actually) having attained advanced degrees. In terms of marital status, however, there is a wide range of diversity. There are employees that are married or single, some that are engaged, others that are divorced and even some that are currently separated. Additionally, there is a modest amount of acquired diversity in the form of geographic location. The vast majority of the employees are located in Southern California, while a few are from the Midwest. A couple of them are situated in the Eastern Standard Time Zone. The most significant area in which my organization is diverse is in the work content that employees do -- some have purely administrative jobs while others have extremely specialized managerial positions pertaining to arcane facets of information technology. There are salesmen and marketing people, and those in all of the traditional enterprise departments (such as finance, etc.).

It appears as though my organization is actually becoming more diverse. Still, it should be noted that due to the largely homogenous Eurocentric population of employees, the organization certainly has a substantial amount of room to become more diverse. However, there were a couple of recent additions to this organization that appear to either be Pacific Islanders, Latinos, or perhaps some combination of the two. Their positions with the company were a fairly positive sign that the company was attempting to take strides to become more diverse. Despite the additions of these women, this particular organization still has a lot more to do to effectively become diverse.

Diversity can present certain problems for this organization. Firstly, it can make certain people uncomfortable in certain situations. For instance, there are a number of different individuals that are used to the fact that traditionally, this organization has been somewhat homogenous in terms of its racial and ethnic makeup. Thus, there are situations in which outsiders are used to making statements about people of other races and ethnicities that could potentially offend people that are not Eurocentric, or who perhaps have close relationships with individuals of other races and ethnicities. In fact, certain members of the organization have also made such statements that regarding ethnicity that could be perceived as potentially offensive. The principle problem that diversity presents, then, is the fact that people need to adopt their behavior to become more inclusive of those who are different from then. Doing so is not always easy, and may create situations in which employees are uncomfortable or even want to leave the organization as a result.

Diversity should influence the way that individuals behave by making them more tolerant and more aware of issues of diversity. However, such increased tolerance and awareness does not always occur. Moreover, diversity should encourage a climate in which people are more accepting of others. Individuals should alter their behavior by viewing others in less stereotypical terms and ideally seeing the similarities, as opposed to the differences, between people. In this respect diversity presents an opportunity for people to effectively transcend their own experiences and beliefs and to incorporate those of others. This process is not only valuable from a personal perspective, but also can help companies to produce business value by pooling from a wider body of experiences and knowledge to help influence their business practices.